Stuff and Nonsense

Gift I made for a baby shower I went to this past weekend:



for some reason I was feeling compelled to make something baby out of blueberry fabric...looking at the photo, it looks more old-lady-ish than baby-ish, but very Maine, so I think it's OK. I think the blubes would even work for a boy (especially my berry lovin' boys), but I would not have thought to make them something...funny how you rub up against the edge of your comfort zone like that...I have a friend who dresses her son in all kinds of flowery things, and I greatly admire her for it, but can't bring myself to do it, although I did dress all three boys in pink flowery onesies handed down from their cousin when they were babies. It's probably a good thing I don't have a girl...she'd be dressed in all kinds of fruity (literally) clothes, particularly strawberries, I think, in either Little House on The Prairie style long dresses with pinafores or Little Orphan Annie style short dresses before pinafores (before she finds Daddy Warbucks, in the movie Annie--is it weird I love her orphan dress?)

The blanket is from an old Martha Stewart Kids (just a yard of cotton sewn to a yard of flannel--I tried to get all fancy with the rounded corners). The shoe pattern comes from here. Wish I knew about this when my babies were little...I would have mad a dozen pairs. And the round thing is a teether made with a wooden ring and grossgrain ribbon. I don't remember where I got the idea, but I think it's cute. Each thing took an hour or less.


The Healthy Eating Plan--is going fairly well...I like the escape valve of "whatever" for dinner and weekends (but still no sugar, although the jam I had on my pancakes may have had some sugar in it--I made some this summer w/ sugar, some w/ fruit juice and some w/ honey and I don't remember which). I got very cook-ey Friday and made hummus, bread, creme bulgair (that's yogurt made from cream) and scones (which I tried to make like drop biscuits to avoid the patting and shaping, but they came out more like blops)...the hummus for lunches this week, the bread just 'cause, and the creme bulgair and scones because I had a lot of cream to use up (we get milk from a nearby farm and it has about 3 inches of cream on the top of every half gallon).



(This picture shows everything but the bread, which is in the oven, and a lot of the mess, which is off to the right).



Hummus ready for freezing (btw...hummus from scratch is not as good as store-bought...bummer).

I was very good and didn't eat any scones b/c they have sugar in them. Monday I kind of forgot about the vegan part of the eating plan and suggested egg salad for lunch because it had gone over well Sunday (i.e. M ate egg salad, Z ate a "round" egg, and E ate the white off his egg). I ate some egg salad anyway, because I felt starved for protein haven eaten at least three meals over the weekend that consisted mainly of mashed potatoes. I also had cabbage salad, and avocado and carrot sticks (and no bread), so it wasn't too bad.



The last (yummy) thing I made before Lent was Bohemian Kolaches, a recipe I remember my mom making on rare but yummy occasions when I was little. They're little rolls of sweet bread with filling in the middle. She always made some apricot, some prune and some poppy seed, but I had a lot of prunes to use up (and if you make these ever, I would not recommend eating all the leftover prune filling out of the saucepan, even if it does taste exactly like mince meat pie because of the allspice. Not that I would do that or anything. Just sayin'). They came out a tad on the dry side, but they were light and flaky and yummy. A couple of days earlier I also made the Best Cookies Ever for a gathering we went to...imagine a cookie that combines the best of peanut butter, oatmeal and chocolate chip cookies all in one! And is easy! And delicious! Where did I find this magical recipe? Some fancy-dancy cookie cookbook? The internets? NO! It's from the good old-fashioned red-checkered Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook--they're called peanut butter oatmeal rounds and they rock! I can't wait for Lent to end so I can make them again. M took one taste and declared, "I don't like peanut butter cookies," and I was like, Yeah! More for me! They went too fast to take a picture, but I'll get one next time.



M, Z and E had a spontaneous tea party Sunday after lunch. I love Salt and Chocolate's little tea parties, but I am not that organized. They wanted to play with the tea sets (which I store on top of a very tall piece of furniture after a few breakage incidents), then they wanted real tea, so I washed the cups (which appeared to have a crust of sugar from the last tea party) and put tiny leftover Valentine's hearts on the plates...it was cute to watch M pour, and the little ones sip (and M say, everytime E or Z asked for a re-fill, "Just let me drink MY tea!" Hmmm...who does that sound like?).



And finally, it's March. March? It snowed 10 inches yesterday!! On March 2. Crocuses? Tulips? Daffodils? Not a chance. BUT...when C got home last night, he plowed the driveway and I looked out at 5:30 p.m. and I could see the plow truck! That is progress (although apparently we're going to switch to daylight savings soon and be getting up in the dark again! Arrggh!)